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Photo: Flickr user bjaglin, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Opened in 1904, and always at the centre of the Irish drama scene, the Abbey is a good venue for catching local playwrights' work but with a global repertoire. It's intended to replace the current building with two new theatres fronting onto the Liffey. This will mean a lengthy closure, but the work has not started.
The Abbey Theatre, also known as the National Theatre of Ireland is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. It first opened to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day. The Abbey was the first state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world; from 1925 onwards it received an annual subsidy from the Irish Free State. Since July 1966, the Abbey has been located at 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.
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The GPO is the headquarters of the Post Office in Ireland, built in Neo-Classical style 1814-1818. In 1916 it was occupied by Irish rebels led by PH Pearse, who read the Proclamation of the Republic outside the front door of the building. The interior was burnt out by shelling from government forces against the rebels, but the exterior survived. Subsequently the GPO was restored, reopening in 1929, and remains a busy working post office. The museum within it is a multimedia exploration of the Easter Rising.
Dublin's Catholic cathedral, built in 1825. Catholicism was always the majority religion in Ireland, but its practice was forbidden until the 19th century. The official cathedral is Christ Church, so designated by the Pope in 1300, but taken over by the Protestants in the 16th century. When the laws relaxed, St Mary's was built in neo-Classical style as a temporary or "pro"-cathedral, until such time as the Pope decrees otherwise or the Protestants hand back Christ Church. Neither event appears imminent.
Trinity College is the fine Georgian campus of the University of Dublin. It's generally open to stroll around in daylight hours, but it is a working university, and most interiors are off-limits to tourists. You can visit the Chapel near the front (west) gate of the College. But the big attraction is the Old Library and Book of Kells. Book online, otherwise buy your ticket from the machines under the Lecky library just south. This is for a timed slot, and at weekends may be booked out. You enter an exhibition hall setting the Book in the context of other monastic writings of its period, circa 800 AD. Next enter the display area: only two pages are displayed at any time, one being richly illustrated with little text (or no text, on the "carpet" pages), and one page being text of the Vulgate Gospels, written in Insular Majuscule Latin. But it's difficult to enjoy, with crowds jostling round the display case. Next, go upstairs into the massive Long Hall of the library, with books and ladders and more books and ladders towering away upwards. No books are accessible to the public. Last but not least, exit through the gift shop, which can be entered without a ticket.
Over the centuries more than 10 million people emigrated from Ireland; this is the story of why they left, where they went and how they shaped the world.
This has a focus on European and American theatre ranging from classics to modern plays. It was established as a theatre company in 1928 by Hilton Edward and Micheál MacLiammóir.
Impressive national collection of Irish and European Art. In January the gallery displays its watercolours by JMW Turner; the original donor specified that they had to be kept out of the light for the rest of the year.